Comments on: Rebuild Windows Vista Icons Cache – Vista Displaying Wrong Icons

By: MizardX

MizardX — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:48:35 +0000

If this happens often, it is probably better to increase the icon cache size. See http://www.windowsvalley.com/increase-max-cached-icons-size-to-prevent-corruption-of-iconcache-db/ for more information.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 07:45:56 +0000

Thanks for this fix!

By: ayra

ayra — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:52:53 +0000

Here a complete script for a .BAT File, changes to the system drive too, if the cmd is launched on another Drive, kills explorer and deletes the IconCache.db:
@ECHO OFF
%SYSTEMDRIVE%
CD “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local”
TSKILL EXPLORER
ATTRIB -S -H -R -A IconCache.db
DEL IconCache.db
CLS
ECHO Done

By: Mihkel

Mihkel — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:36:29 +0000

Hey. I followed your steps exactly but the problem is that the iconcache.db file does not get recreated on my Vista. Tried restarting and changing screen color depth but no luck. Also I tried to these instructions again and iconcache.db wasn’t found in cmd so it’s not because the file’s hidden. Is there any other way to manually recreate the file? Cause right now I’m still stuck with ugly blank icons.

Thanks a bunch

By: EJ

EJ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:22:39 +0000

worked for me!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you very much!!

By: erica

erica — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:31:28 +0000

I just went into AppData\Local\ and deleted the .db file, through windows & it fixed the problem immediately… not sure if I’ve caused other problems in doing this, but so far so good

By: Adrinkit

Adrinkit — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:02:20 +0000

Thanks! Also works in Windows 7

By: Em

Em — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:42:52 +0000

A simple and excellent tip. It worked perfectly for me.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Excellent tip. This worked for me, too.

If you are receiving an error when you attempt to change into your profile directory on the command prompt, your username and/or profile path probably contain a space, so you need to enclose the path location in quotes, e.g.:

> cd “%userprofile%\AppData\Local”

Also, Bruce, there’s no need to start the cmd.exe prompt before you kill the explorer.exe task; one is able to launch a new process from within the Task Manager: File -> New Task (Run…), enter cmd, and hit OK. (You can start explorer.exe after you delete the icon cache using the same process [pardon the terrible pun]).

Thanks, again, for this tip. The missing Thunderbird icon was driving me insane… especially when reinstalling Thunderbird didn’t fix the problem!

By: Antony

Antony — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:56:33 +0000

Thanks! Other sources were saying to simply restart, which did not help. Your suggestion worked perfectly, and I was able to navigate to and run explorer again without having to restart at all. Cheers, mate.

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:59:43 +0000

Cheers for the useful info.

By: Fixing incorrect Vista icons | keyongtech

Fixing incorrect Vista icons | keyongtech — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:25:20 +0000

[...] Vista icons – refer to URL for the fix I seem to have to keep doing (say, once every 1-2 months). http://i.nconspicuo.us/2007/08/28/re…g-wrong-icons/ (I did a quick search and this problem has been reported with other, similar fixes before). Is [...]

By: Sonath

Sonath — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:00:58 +0000

Worked! It fixed a distorted toolbar that was driving me crazy!

By: Pepe

Pepe — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:59:26 +0000

Thanks so much!!
Is this normal or a bug? Why don’t they fix this issue?
I hate Vista

By: Charity Anderson

Charity Anderson — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:58:59 +0000

Thank you! Just started to use Vista and suddenly some (not all) the icons on the Quick Launch bar showed up as colored boxes. If I moved them to the desktop, they showed correctly. Whereas, if I moved one of the icons that was showng correctly to the desktop, it showed wrong. This fixed the problem after searching for over an hour for a solution.

Also, in response to the first commenter, if the Task Manager is started and explorer is killed, then go to file -> new task (run…) and enter: cmd and the command prompt opens fine. You can also run explorer through that menu option…

Thanks again!!